News:

Top Concerns for Directors in 2012:

The SEC enforcement agenda and whistleblower bounty program, CEO succession, executive compensation, and IT risk were among the issues on audit committee members’ minds as they met in December and January at three audit committee peer exchanges hosted by the PwC Center for Board Governance. The exchanges were part of the 2011 Year-end considerations for audit committees seminar held in Arizona, New York and Florida.

PwC Vice Chair, Assurance, Tim Ryan facilitated the exchanges, which included over 200 audit committee members. Following are the major recurring themes at each of the venues.

Compliance

Among all the rulemaking and enforcement actions that have taken place over the past year, one that caused significant consternation among the audit committee members is the new SEC whistleblower bounty program. Many are concerned about the program undercutting existing company whistleblower programs that came into existence following the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. That law calls for public company audit committees to oversee whistleblower hotlines.

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